DIALOGUE

A great soul has departed from this realm. On January 3, Jeremy Taylor, a founding member and past president of the Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) and author of the book many of us know as  Where People Fly And Water Runs Uphill (now updated and re-released as The Wisdom of Your Dreams: Using Dreams to Tap Into Your Unconscious and Transform Your Life) passed away from a heart attack just 2 days after his beloved wife, Kathy, crossed on New Years Day.

Jeremy was a mentor and inspiration to many of us in this community, including me, as I had the honor of taking a course from him when I did my first masters in Depth Psychology at Sonoma State University nearly a decade ago. Just months ago, Jeremy and I had a long video call to catch up, and discussed offering a course on dreams together via the Alliance. Jeremy was also a playwright and a published poet.

I am deeply saddened by his passing, yet so grateful for the tremendous body of work he left behind, and the powerful impact he had on so may lives. Following is a poem by Jeremy which seems particularly poignant right now. Thank you, Jeremy. May the work continue....

Love Prayer (as posted on Jeremy's web site)
(with a tip of the hat to Coleman Barks)

Oh, God(dess)
Grant me Love!

Please, make it simply
Difficult.
Make it crack and melt the hard places
Where I am so sure of myself.

Make it stiffen and enliven the weak places
Where I am uncertain, ignorant,
and secretly afraid.

And please make it horribly "inappropriate"
So I must really know you in myself,
Myself in you,
Forced
To give up everything that is not love
(Because it is so hard to do it willingly. . .)

I pray this
Knowing it will ruin me.

Let me be ruined by love,
So that I may come back to you
Without pride, or stupidity, 
- Or pretense, or opinions -

or any sense of separation -

Stripped
Like a lover,
Hungry and ecstatically full
All at the same time!

-Jeremy Taylor, United States
twentieth century
Sacred Poems and Prayers of Love, 1998